This week has been more fun at the fair in the evenings, with time to sew during the day. Monday evening was the pork competition, and the emphasis was on international cuisine. The contest was called PassPork to Flavor, which I thought was clever. So, knowing how much I like Japanese food, I went with Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps, using ground pork. Placing the filling in a pretty bowl, I layered lettuce leaves alongside sprinkled with green onions.

The judges awarded my dish Third Place. Afterwards, they remarked on how nice the presentation was, with little bits of green onion scattered on the bright green lettuce leaves. Download the recipe – Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps. I’ll warn you that the oyster sauce tends to be a bit on the salty side, and I have found the Kame brand is less so than Kikkoman. I used apples instead of water chestnuts to add some sweetness and balance the salty.

Then Tuesday night, the egg competition was held. The theme was Breakfast Casseroles, so I got out my tried and true recipe for my Holiday Breakfast Casserole, and modified it to give it an Italian flair. I changed the sausage to Italian sausage, added sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. To give it just a bit more pizazz, I added dollops of ricotta. Then topped it off with a layer of mozzarella and Parmesan.

Woohoo, second place!! Here’s the recipe – Italian Breakfast Casserole. The recipe makes a 9×13 casserole dish full, but for the competition, I divided it into two 8×8 dishes. I baked one in the afternoon so My Sweet Babboo would have a meal before going to the fair. We ate almost that whole dish in one meal. I think it works best as a Sunday brunch kind of thing, very savory with the sun dried tomatoes.

The NC Egg Council is one of the few that give nice gifts in addition to the monetary prize. This goodie bag was really nice, with a canvas tote bag, a nice blue apron embroidered with their logo, a water cup with a screw on lid, some marvelous silicone kitchen tools, a cookbook and a bunch of recipe cards. Wow, this was fabulous. Everything went into my kitchen right away.

In the basement, on the longarm frame, I am quilting a wonderful Quilt of Valor, with friendship stars all in patriotic prints.

I’m using my favorite pantograph for military quilts of ribbons and stars. The maker, Sheila, asked for a light blue thread and I liked her choice. I used Glide in the top and Bottom Line in the bobbin.

The design is called Blue Star from Urban Elementz.

Also in the sewing room, I put Autumn Celebration up on the wall using the curtain rod and ring clips. It covers a big section, and gives the room more of an Autumn feel. It is helping to put me in more of a mood for fall projects.

I have a new option to buy my patterns now. If you’ve wanted to buy my Pumpkin Star Quilt Pattern or my Autumn Celebration Row Quilt Pattern, you can now do so on my Buy My Patterns page with a payment button. After you pay, you’ll get a confirmation thank you message with a link to download the pattern. If this works well, I will add those buttons to more of my more popular patterns.

There are two more cooking competitions to go. There was a competition last night for blueberries, but I did not place. I was a bit disappointed as I was really excited about the recipe, and I’ll tell you all about that later. The dairy competition is tonight, then the last on Saturday morning. I have my recipes ready to go, all the ingredients are in the kitchen. But, I will make the decision on participating by the weather. I’ve won a lot already, and if it is pouring rain, it just isn’t that important. Next week, I’ll get back to planning something for our fall fun time. Yes, I do have something cooking on that!